First aid kit checklist
Build the home kit first, then take the short travel group with you. The last group is the one everyone skips, and it is why half of all kits fail when opened.
55 items
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
The items
- Dressings
- Plasters, assorted sizes
- Waterproof plasters
- Sterile gauze pads×6
- Non-adherent dressings for burns and grazes
- Adhesive tape
- Crepe bandage×2
- Triangular bandage
- Blister plasters
- Steri-strips for a wound that gapes
- Tools
- Scissors that only live in the kit
- Tweezers, fine-pointed
- Disposable gloves×4
- Safety pins
- Digital thermometer
- Tick remover
- Foil emergency blanket
- A torch, or the one on your phone with charge left
- Cleaning and creams
- Antiseptic wipes
- Saline pods for eyes and wounds
- Antiseptic cream
- Burn gel or a burn dressing
- Antihistamine cream for bites and stings
- Hand sanitiser
- Medicines
- Paracetamol, adult
- Ibuprofen
- Children's paracetamol, if there are children
- Oral antihistamine
- Rehydration sachets
- Any prescribed emergency medicine, in dateAn adrenaline pen or inhaler belongs with the person, not in the cupboard. Keep a spare here anyway.
- Information
- Emergency numbers written on paper
- A card listing allergies and regular medication for each person
- A basic first aid leaflet
- The number for out-of-hours advice
- Add for the car
- A second smaller kit that lives in the boot
- Foil blanket
- High-visibility vest
- Bottled water
- Add for the rucksack
- Blister plasters and tape
- Painkillers in a small tin
- Foil blanket
- Whistle
- Rehydration sachets
- Keep it working
- Check expiry dates twice a year
- Replace anything used, the same week
- Everyone in the house knows where it lives
- Keep it in a box that opens one-handed
- Not on the top shelf you need a chair for
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
Questions people ask
- What should be in a home first aid kit?
- Plasters and dressings in several sizes, tape, scissors, tweezers, gloves, antiseptic and painkillers. Everything else is an addition to that base.
- How often should I check it?
- Twice a year. Medicines expire, plasters lose their seal, and the thing you needed last time never got replaced. Put it with the clock change so you remember.